Police: Daphne man was strangled to death by new roommate

Shaun Carmadelle is facing a capital murder charge after confessing to Daphne police that he killed his roommate Steven McCullough.

DAPHNE, Alabama -- A man whose body was discovered Sunday in his apartment had been strangled with a pair of electrical cords by a man who had been his roommate for just a week, police said today.

Steven McCullough’s wife had been living in San Antonio for the past 6 weeks, caring for a sick relative, police spokesman Lt. Jud Beedy said Tuesday.

The McCulloughs had sought a roommate for Steven to share the expenses of their apartment at the Grande Pointe complex in the Lake Forest area, Beedy said. A cousin introduced them to Shaun Carmadelle, who soon moved in.

On Saturday morning, according the Beedy, the arrangement went terribly wrong.

Carmadelle smoked crack cocaine throughout the night Friday, and demanded on Saturday morning that McCullough lend him his truck. Carmadelle wanted to drive to Mobile to purchase more drugs and hire prostitutes, Beedy said.

When McCullough refused, Carmadelle strangled him by winding two electrical extension cords around his neck then tying them together in a knot, according to the police spokesman.

Carmadelle took McCullough’s keys, got in the truck and drove to Mobile, Beedy said.

"He called us late Sunday because we’d been looking for him. He said he was at the Waffle House on U.S. 90. At first, he told us a number of lies," Beedy said.

Then, the Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office got involved. Carmadelle was on probation for a conviction on a drug possession charge, Beedy said.

Through the work of the District Attorney’s Office, a judge revoked Carmadelle’s probation.

"It was his conduct in Mobile that he admitted to" that resulted in the revocation, as well as the results of drug testing, said District Attorney Hallie Dixon.

McCullough’s wife had called Daphne police on Sunday worried about her husband’s welfare because she and a few of her relatives who live at the apartment complex had been unable to contact him, Beedy said.

Police found the body of the 44-year-old McCullough on Sunday afternoon.

An autopsy completed Monday determined that McCullough had died of asphyxiation.

Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without parole or the death penalty upon conviction.